Cloth trim tape, cloth pockets and folded cloth rope have many uses in the sewing trade. Unattractive raw cut edges of necklines, hemlines and sleeves of well made garments are often concealed by folding strips of decorative trim tape over the cut edges of garments and stitching the trim tape to the garments. Attractive and desirable decorative effects can also be produced by stitching strips or patterns of trim tape to other parts of garments. Trim tape may be selected to match garment fabrics in color, pattern or texture, to contrast with garment fabrics, or to produce other desired decorative effects. Cloth pockets are often used to hold curtain rods, draw strings, and elastic cords. Folded cloth rope can be used for braiding rugs, macrame, crocheting, or knitting.
Trim tape with longitudinal stretch can be stitched onto a garment in a curved pattern without introducing unwanted wrinkles, and such tape is made from a variety of cloth materials. Bias trim tape is made using woven non-stretch fabrics that are cut on a bias and folded and pressed to produce two parallel longitudinal creases along the edges of the tape. Trim tape is also produced from one-way-stretch knit fabrics by folding and pressing the fabric so that the parallel longitudinal creases are in the direction of stretch of the fabric. Similiarly, trim tape with longitudinal stretch is produced from two-way-stretch knit fabrics by folding and pressing the fabric so that the parallel longitudinal creases are in one of the directions of stretch of the fabric. Non-stretch trim tape is also used for some purposes, and such tape is produced by folding and pressing woven non-stretch fabric so that the parallel longitudinal creases are in the direction of or perpendicular to the straight of the material or so that the parallel longitudinal creases are perpendicular to the direction of stretch of one-way-stretch knit fabrics.
Trim tape is available commercially in assorted fabrics, patterns, colors and sizes, and a person can extend the choice of trims by hand making his or her own trim tape from cloth of any desired kind, color, pattern or size.
One method for hand making trim tape is to hand cut fabric approximately twice as wide as the desired width of the finished tape and thereafter to fold the fabric on itself and along its length so that the longitudinal cut edges of the fabric abut each other along a line running the length of the finished tape and approximately in the center of one side of the finished tape. Creases are formed along the edges of the folded fabric by pressing the edges with a hot iron. To produce trim tape by this method the fabric must be precisely cut and the folds exactly located by a process of repeatedly measuring, folding and pressing short increments along the length of the fabric. This process is awkward and slow and has a tendency to produce tape that varies in width along its length and in which the longitudinal cut edges of the fabric tend to gap or to overlap at points along the length of the tape, thereby producing undesired bulges and voids in the tape.
A second method for hand making trim is to form the trim on the garment. This is accomplished by stitching one edge of the trim cloth to the cut edge of the garment that is being trimmed and thereafter folding and creasing the trim cloth along its length to form the finished trim in place on the garment. The free edge of the folded trim is then stitched to the garment. This method suffers from the same deficiencies as the first method.
Cloth pockets are hand made by methods similar to those used to make trim tape, except that the cloth folds are relatively narrower and the longitudinal cut edges of the fabric may not abut each other as in the case of trim tape.
Present methods for hand making cloth trim tape, cloth pockets, and folded cloth rope are awkard and slow and the resulting tape, pocket or rope tends to be of uneven width and thickness. The present invention provides an instrument and process for rapidly and conveniently hand making cloth trim tape, cloth pockets and folded cloth rope of more uniform width and thickness and having a more pleasing appearance than tape, pockets or rope made by other hand methods.